SteelSeries Rival 100 White Mouse

With entry-level priced mice, gamers are always sacrificing something. Whether it’s the illumination, number of side buttons, ergonomics or performance. The Rival 100 sacrifices nothing and delivers on every single feature option. The Rival 100 is the only fully equipped gaming mouse in its class.

What makes the Rival 100 the winner in its class? The sensor.

SteelSeries has been working for more than 3 years to create a best-in-class solution for the low-cost gaming mouse market. Form factor, ergonomics, switches, number of buttons are all important features, but over more than a decade of building award-winning mice, we’ve learned that at their core, it’s the sensor which determines mouse superiority and what movements will and will not be accurately and consistently tracked.

Our research and development team quickly realized that what was being offered from peripheral makers like Logitech and Razer were decent and hit the right price point, but were not great and no where near good-enough for the competitive gaming circuit. The central reason why was because of the concessions that had to be made due to their choice in sensors.

For the past year, SteelSeries has been working with sensor manufacturer PixArt to create an optimized sensor solution that would allow our mouse to do everything that our community of professional gamers and streamers needed and wanted. The enhancements made to create this new-breed sensor produce significant advantages for users, including:

Optimized lift-off distance: Unlike gaming mice that reduce tracking performance to achieve a lower lift off distance, the Rival 100 sacrifices nothing by offering the best tracking performance paired with an optimal low lift of distance making it the best gaming mouse in its class.

Important Rival 100 Features with Numbers that Beat the Competition: 140 IPS

Inches Per Second or IPS refers to the maximum speed at which they can be moved before their sensors lose their ability to track the movement. If a gamer exceeds the IPS setting the mouse will give off “jerky” movements – not tracking movement consistently. (SteelSeries Rival 100 has a 140IPS, while the Logitech G302 has only 100 IPS - keep in mind that these are both incredibly fast speeds, but it is very possible for gamers to reach past the 100 IPS point rendering mice that do not exceed 100 IPS to not track accurately).

20g Acceleration

Mouse acceleration is the velocity at which the mouse can register a change in movement.
The Rival 100 will register a change in movement at speeds up to 20gs (or 200 meters per second) and still register your speed; it’s registering the change in speed. This is a relevant number to be aware of in games where flick-shots or reflex plays happen.(The Razer Abyssus registers only 15gs making the Rival 100 able to register a change in movement at a 33% faster pace.)

On the surface what makes the Rival 100 stand out?

The amount of buttons on the Rival 100 beats out all of the competition with a total of 6 buttons. An entry-level priced mouse doesn’t mean gamers should have to sacrifice multiple button options.

What SteelSeries Engine can make this mouse do?

SteelSeries Engine is all about the customization of buttons, sensitivity, lighting and more:

Map the 6 mouse buttons to custom game controls.

Adjust optical sensor sensitivity for any style and speed of play.

Create custom lighting options from more than 16 million colors.

Create personalized configurations for your favorite games.

GameSense is a part of the new generation of peripherals and real-time, in-game actions - Users can create illumination settings that directly reflect in-game actions as they happen.

FAQ

What sensor is found in the Rival 100?

The Rival 100 has an optimized SDNS-3059-SS optical sensor that our development team worked directly with PixArt to build. Similar what we have done with the QS1 switches in our Apex M800 mechanical keyboard, we have approached the with Rival 100 sensor the same way, by directly working the sensor manufacturer to build exactly the sensor we wanted without making any concessions to the performance we wanted to achieve.

What is the CPI?

The Rival 100 has a 2000 CPI and reach up to 4000 DCPI.

But here is why you need to stop caring about CPI?

Counts Per Inch (CPI) or Dots Per Inch (DPI) doesn’t carry any relevant weight on a great or better mouse. The CPI race is a way for gaming mouse companies to include an incredibly high number – outdoing their competitors –meant to dupe and confuse the consumer into believing a higher number is better for this feature is better.

SteelSeries has stepped away from this unimportant numbers race. Instead we are bringing gamers the features (and numbers) that make a difference and outshine the “smoke and mirrors” of over marketing “empty” features. Instead we direct gamers attention to true 1:1 tracking accuracy, zero hardware acceleration and low lift off distance.

What is zero hardware acceleration?

On-board zero hardware acceleration means there is no acceleration in the properties of the sensor of the Rival 100. Users can add acceleration through the SteelSeries Engine software – if they choose to do that then it means if a gamer moves their mouse 5 inches to the right at 5mi per hour or the same 5 inches at 3mi/hour, regardless of how fast they move the mouse it will reach the same point – it’s registering the physical distance the same - not the pace at which the mouse was moved.

What is the “low” lift-off distance (LOD)?

The lower lift off distance, the better. It gives you better tracking accuracy. When the mouse is off your surface it’ll stop tracking. The Rival 100 has a 1.5mm LOD: the mouse will continue to track until it reaches 1.5mm off its surface.